"The modern master of the gamebook format" (Rob Sanders)... "Can do dark very well" (Jonathan Oliver)... "Green gets mileage out of his monsters" (SFX Magazine)... "It takes a firm editorial hand and a keen understanding of the tone of each piece to make a collection this diverse work, and Green makes it look effortless" (Starburst Magazine)

Sunday, 30 October 2016

Just imagine for a minute, if you will, that there was to be a supplement to YOU ARE THE HERO published next year, to mark the 35th anniversary of the publication of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.

If there was such a title, what would you like to see contained within its pages?

"In the circumstances, an anthology of shark stories might seem like a further unnecessary libel on this species’ good name, but fortunately Green casts his net wider than the archetypal killer shark template and hauls in a rich and varied catch, and as ever the biggest and most deadly of predators is man himself."
You can read the review in its entirety, with each story getting its moment in the spotlight, here.

Monday, 24 October 2016

"In the beginning, I used to tell people the not very funny answers, the flip ones: 'From the Idea-of-the-Month Club,' I'd say, or 'From a little ideas shop in Bognor Regis,' 'From a dusty old book full of ideas in my basement,' or even 'From Pete Atkins.' (The last is slightly esoteric, and may need a little explanation. Pete Atkins is a screenwriter and novelist friend of mine, and we decided a while ago that when asked, I would say that I got them from him, and he'd say he got them from me. It seemed to make sense at the time.)Then I got tired of the not very funny answers, and these days I tell people the truth:'I make them up,' I tell them. 'Out of my head.' People don't like this answer. I don't know why not. They look unhappy, as if I'm trying to slip a fast one past them. As if there's a huge secret, and, for reasons of my own, I'm not telling them how it's done."

Saturday, 22 October 2016

The audiobook of the successful anthology, edited by Jonathan Green, of stories with a shark theme. Think Sharknado in written form! You'll be surprised how many twists on a theme you can find in one anthology.

Featuring stories from established authors such as Andrew Lane (Young Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Torchwood) and Jonathan Oliver (The Call of Kerberos) this title has been a lot of fun to voice and will be a lot of fun to listen to!

This audio is in the final stages of post production and will release in early November in both CD and audio download formats.
You can register interest in advance and we will let you know when it is available to order - just drop a comment on the post here.

Friday, 21 October 2016

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland might not be as well know in the US as it is in the UK but it still has its fans. On Amazon.com all of the book's reviews are 5-star reviews. And here's an extract from the latest one:

"This book is awesome! I think the combat might be a little confusing for someone who has never played an adventure game. However, you can still have a lot of fun just reading and not playing. I have had a blast with this book. Every time I pick it up it is like reading a new story!... I highly recommend this book!"
You can picked up your copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Monday, 17 October 2016

"The only advice I have - and it's rarely welcome because it involves a huge amount of hard work and guarantees no success - is that if you've never written before, you need to start. There are cases of people sitting down and writing a good book just like that, but there are also cases of people being born with two heads. It's overwhelmingly likely that you would need to write, solicit feedback, write more, write again, and keep doing it until you got good enough for people to demand your work rather than suffer it."

Friday, 7 October 2016

So, what are my thoughts on my latest crowdfunding campaign, now that the dust has settled?

Well, despite having the best opening weekend of any of my projects, it was also the most stressful. There is a lot that is published on Kickstarter about being a good creator - communicating with your backers, abiding by the rules of good Internet etiquette and the like - but someone should publish some guidelines on how to be a good backer. (Like, not pulling out during the final few days of a Kickstarter's run, and not pledging for rewards you can't afford.)

Listing the project initially in Games didn't help it gain any traction and may also be the reason why it didn't become listed as one of the Kickstarter team's 'Projects We Love', which my other recent crowdfunding campaigns have. Having that tag also helps drive traffic to the project page which might have meant that The Wicked Wizard of Oz funded sooner rather than later, as it did (only actually reaching its funding goal a day before the end of its run).

However, trailing the project in advance really helped give it a strong opening and, given the right project, the right reward levels, and enough warning, I think it would be possible to plan a Kickstarter which funded within its first week. (I'm looking at you, YOU ARE THE HERO Part 2!)

And I have to say that I am loving writing The Wicked Wizard of Oz and subverting so many of L. Frank Baum's beloved characters. (My favourite so far probably has to be Princess Ozma.) Having reached the halfway point in my first draft a week before the end of the Kickstarter's run I stopped writing, fearing that the project might not actually fund and also so that I could dedicate myself wholly to the campaign*. However, now that it has funded (and most of the money pledged has actually been collected) I'm back into the flow of things again.

So, watch this space...

* There is an interesting piece here about why so many crowdfunding campaigns fail, but I draw it to your attention because of the point it makes about what the media doesn’t cover is how much work actually goes into running a successful campaign. Seriously, you should pay yourself a month's wage just to do that, but then if you did your funding goal would become even more unattainable!

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Seamus Heaney: "I saw a frog."
Ted Hughes: "I saw a frog and it was dead."
Edgar Allen Poe: "I saw a frog and she was dead."
Sylvia Plath: "I saw a frog and I am dead."
Samuel Beckett: "I saw a frog and it was God."
Siegfried Sassoon: "I've seen Hell and it's a frog."
Spike Milligan: "Nig nag nog, I saw a frog."
William Shakespeare: "Verily I saw a frog."
T.S. Eliot: "Do I dare to see a frog?"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "I hallucinated a frog."
Lord Byron: "I'm p****d as a newt!"

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

I was in the central London Warhammer store at the weekend and I have to say, I love the look of the new Genestealer Cults codex. I love the look of the miniatures, and the variation between them. I many way, they remind me of the good old days of Necromunda, and the huge range of figures that came with that game, birthed from its fertile background. Which is appropriate, seeing as how my first novel for Black Library was originally going to be a Nathan Creed novel, the climax of which had the bounty hunter uncovering a Genestealer cult.

I've always had a soft spot for Genestealers. The first short story I wrote for Inferno! magazine (and my first published 40K short story), Salvation, featured Genestealers (and a Carnifex).

Six years later I wrote another Space Marines vs Genestealers story, Sanctuary, which was reprinted in TheAmargeddon Omnibus in 2011. It would be nice if Black Library republished that one as part of a collection of Genestealer stories. (In the illustration, Chaplain Wolfram of the Black Templars Solemnus Crusade takes on the Genestealers, as drawn by Dave Allsop.)

And if the opportunity ever arose, I would love to write a gamebook featuring a Genestealer cult.

Meanwhile, the new/old White Dwarf continues to go from strength to strength, and this month comes with a free comic written by George Mann.

Sunday, 2 October 2016

There are just 24 hours remaining for The Wicked Wizard of Oz to achieve funding via Kickstarter. As of writing there are still £179 left to raise or the book won't happen, which would be annoying seeing as how I've already written half of it.

And with one day left to go, some more DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE level rewards have been released (listed as DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE AGAIN).

So why not check out the project and the rewards and pledge your support, before it's too late?

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"Green deserves 10/10." - The Independent

"As welcome as a warm glass of mulled wine on a wintry night, Green's guide to Christmas enhances the pleasures of the festive season, offering a witty cornucopia of Christmas facts and folklore." - The Good Book Guide

"As usual, author Jonathan Green gets mileage out of his monsters, with big action set-pieces that read like Things We'd Like to See in a rip-roaring summer movie if the creature effects were good enough." - SFX Magazine

WRITTEN BY JONATHAN GREEN

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Jonathan Green

About Me

I am a freelance writer and editor, well known for my contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks. I have also written for such diverse properties as Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Who, Star Wars and Games Workshop's worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.
I am the creator of the alternative steampunk universe of Pax Britannia, and have written eight novels featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver.
As well as my fiction work, I have also written a number of non-fiction books including 'Match Wits with the Kids', 'What is Myrrh Anyway? Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas' and 'YOU ARE THE HERO - A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks'.